Monday, 5/6/13
In the first reading
Paul, along with Silas, Timothy and Luke had taken boat trips from where
Istanbul Turkey is today. By three stages they arrived at Philippi, which was the
Roman capitol of Macedonia where Brutus, the slayer of Julius Caesar, fell on
his sword fifty years earlier.
The four came out from
the town, walking along a riverbank. They were looking for a spot that people
would consider perfect for praying; and sure enough, they found such a place,
coming on women who had also come out from town to pray there.
One of them, whom
Luke identified as Lydia, was a dealer in purple cloth from the city of
Thyatira.
Some years ago a
critic of the Bible pointed out that there was no way that Thyatira, an inland
town, could have supported a purple cloth industry. In response the author of
the article brought forth evidence that in Paul’s time Thyatira had been
located on an island that secured purple dye from squid. It was afterwards that
a tsunami had forced them to relocate Thyatira inland.
An interesting
detail in the story of his travels was that Paul kept the good habits he had
developed when he was a Pharisee. For all the bad things said about the
Pharisees they had to be credited for supporting themselves. They received no
salary. For all his time in Corinth Paul would continue supporting himself
working at his trade of tent making.
In Philippi however,
after he had baptized Lydia and her family, that family demanded that Paul and
his companions accept their hospitality. For long after he left there the
Christians at Philippi continued sending him support and men to serve him. In
his final letter to them from Rome Paul wrote that no other church had shared
with him the way they had.
I can remember
discussions between priests in which they spoke of some parishes as being less generous
than others. In my forty years in this diocese I have served in four parishes,
finding all of them generous, but none so much as the last one where I was
privileged to live.
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